Low and extra low sulfur alloys for repair

ABSTRACT

A method for repairing, refurbishing, or replacing a turbine engine component or sub-component includes the steps of providing a turbine engine component or sub-component having a site to be repaired, refurbished, or replaced providing a repair or replacement material having a sulfur content, which sulfur content is less than 10 ppm, and applying the repair or replacement material to the site on the turbine engine component to effect the repair, the refurbishment, or the replacement.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The instant application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 61/411,072, filed Nov. 8, 2010, entitled LOW AND EXTRALOW SULFUR ALLOYS FOR REPAIR.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to a method forrepairing/refurbishing/creating a turbine engine component orsub-component (e.g., a platform or vane) using a repair material whichhas sulfur in an amount less than 10 ppm.

Turbine engine components, such as turbine blades, or vanes occasionallyhave defects which require repair or refurbishment. The defects mayarise from the manufacture of the turbine engine component or may ariseduring the service life of the component. For many years, differentrepair techniques have been used to repair such components.Occasionally, oxidation occurs in the area of the repair after therepair has been effected. Similarly, repair of turbine components, suchas vanes, results in a reduction in oxidation life in crack or surfacerestoration areas where repair alloys are applied.

Industry practice produces alloy weld wires and powders with sulfurlevels specified from a minimum of 40 ppm to a maximum of 100 ppm.

It is desirable to use repair materials which help prevent the onset ofoxidation in the repair area and which are capable of increasingoxidation life.

SUMMARY

It has been found that by controlling the amount of sulfur in the repairmaterial, one may obtain marked improvements in oxidation life.

In accordance with the present disclosure, there is described a methodfor repairing/refurbishing/creating a turbine engine component orsub-component which broadly comprises the steps of providing a turbineengine component/sub-component having a site to be repaired, providing arepair/refurbishment/replacement material having a sulfur content, whichsulfur content is less than 10 ppm, and applying saidrepair/refurbishment/replacement material to the site on the turbineengine component to effect the repair/refurbishment/replacement.

Further, in accordance with the present disclosure, there is provided anickel based or a cobalt based repair/replacement material havingsulfur, which sulfur is present in an amount less than 10 ppm to improveoxidation life of the repaired turbine engine component orsub-component.

Other details of the low and extra low sulfur alloys forrepair/refurbishment/replacement are set forth in the following detaileddescription, wherein like reference numerals depict like elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a method for effecting a repair;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are graphs showing a direct comparison of coated oxidationlife of low sulfur PWA 1430 and PWA 1484;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are graphs showing a direct comparison of coated oxidationlife of low sulfur PWA 1430 and PWA 1484; and

FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating 2150° F. uncoated oxidation life vs.sulfur content.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The repair/refurbishment/replacement technique described herein isintended to improve the oxidation life of turbine engine components orsub-components repaired with materials, such as weld wire alloys, weldwire powders, powders used in powder bed machines (e.g., electron beammelting or laser sintering), and brazing materials, bycontrolling/reducing the level of sulfur in the repair/replacementmaterial. By controlling sulfur levels below 10 ppm, oxidation life canbe improved. As sulfur levels are reduced below 7.0 ppm, oxidation lifecan be improved by up to 3× over conventional sulfur levels. Desirably,the sulfur level in the repair material is less than 1.0 ppm.

Both nickel base and cobalt base alloy turbine components/sub-componentscould realize life improvement via control of the sulfur content of thematerial being used to repair/replace the turbinecomponent/sub-component. The sulfur control described herein could yieldsignificant improvements in the oxidation of the life ofcomponents/sub-components built by or repaired by the use of additivemanufacturing processes such as plasma powder deposition, lasercladding, powder bed equipment (e.g., electron beam melting or lasersintering), or gas metal arc deposition. In particular, reductions insulfur levels in the repair material could result in improved oxidationbehavior of high pressure turbine blade tip repairs (a region of notedoxidation attack during engine service) and areas of surface restorationperformed on components such as vanes or blades.

The turbine engine components/sub-components to berepaired/refurbished/created may be formed from alloys such as PWA 1455,PWA 1447, PWA 1422, PWA 1426, PWA 1484, PWA 647, PWA 1480, PWA 1440, PWA655, Inconel 713, Rene 77, Rene 125, Rene 80, Rene 142, Rene N5, X-40,IN 100, CMSX-4, C1023 and MM002.

In accordance with the method of the present invention, and as shown inFIG. 1, a turbine engine component/sub-component to be repaired/replacedmay be provided in step 100. Each site to berepaired/refurbished/replaced may be cleaned in step 102. Any suitablecleaning technique known in the art may be used to remove deleteriousmaterial from the site(s) to be repaired and/or clean the site(s).

The repair/replacement material to be applied to the site to effect therepair or the refurbishment may be in the form of a weld wire alloy, aweld wire powder, a powder bed produced component/sub-component, or arepair alloy. The weld wire alloy, the weld wire powder, powder bedproduced component/sub-component, or repair alloy may be a nickel basedor a cobalt based material. As used herein, the term “nickel based”means a material which has more than 50 wt % nickel and the term “cobaltbased” means a material which has more than 50 wt % cobalt. Therepair/refurbishment/replacement material may be different from thematerial forming the turbine engine component. Most notably, therepair/refurbishment/replacement material contains sulfur; however, thesulfur content is less than 10 ppm and more than 0.001 ppm. It has beenfound to be desirable to maintain the sulfur content in therepair/refurbishment/replacement material in the range of from 0.5 ppmto 1.0 ppm.

As shown in step 104, the repair material used to effect therepair/refurbishment/replacement is applied to the site to berepaired/refurbished/replaced. The repair material may be applied andthe repair/refurbishment/replacement may be effected using any suitabletechnique known in the art. For example, the repair/replacement materialmay be applied using a welding technique such a gas tungsten arc weldingor plasma arc welding, a brazing technique such as diffusing brazing andTURBOFIX® brazing, plasma powder deposition, laser cladding, or gasmetal arc deposition. While the method has been described as being arepair method, it should be noted that the method described hereinincludes additive material restorations and component/sub-componentreplacements.

Following application of the repair/refurbishment/replacement material,the turbine engine component with the appliedrepair/refurbishment/replacement material may be subjected to a heattreatment in step 106 if needed. The heat treatment may be any suitabletreatment known in the art.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-5, there is shown a series of graphs whichillustrate how a reduced sulfur content increases the oxidation life ofalloy materials used for repairs in simulated engine exposure testing,i.e. burner rig. FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate a direct comparison of coatedoxidation life of low sulfur PWAS 1430 and PWA 1484. FIGS. 4 and 5illustrate a direct comparison of coated oxidation life of low sulfurPWA 1430 and PWA 1484.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is shown a graph illustrating 2150° F.uncoated oxidation life vs. sulfur content. It can be seen that uncoatedoxidation life at 2150° F. is strongly influenced by alloy sulfurcontent.

It is apparent that there has been provided in accordance with thepresent disclosure low and extra low sulfur alloys for repairing,refurbishing, or replacing turbine engine components/sub-components.While the disclosure has been described in the context of specificembodiments thereof, other unforeseen alternatives, modifications, andvariations may become apparent to those skilled in the art having readthe foregoing description. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace thosealternatives, modifications, and variations which fall within the broadscope of the appended claims.

1. A method for repairing, refurbishing, or replacing a turbine enginecomponent/sub-component comprising the steps of: providing a turbineengine component/sub-component having a site to be repaired; providing arepair/refurbishment/replacement material having a sulfur content, whichsulfur content is less than 10 ppm; and applying therepair/refurbishment/replacement material to the site on the turbineengine component to the site on the turbine engine component to effectsaid repair/refurbishment/replacement.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinsaid step of providing said repair/refurbishment/replacement materialcomprises providing a nickel based repair material having said sulfurcontent.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of providing saidrepair/refurbishment/replacement material comprises providing a cobaltbased repair material having said sulfur content.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein said step of providing said repair/refurbishment/replacementmaterial comprises providing a repair/refurbishment/replacement materialhaving said sulfur content below 7.0 ppm.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein said step of providing said repair/refurbishment/replacementmaterial comprises providing a repair/refurbishment/replacement materialhaving said sulfur content below 1.0 ppm.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein said step of providing said repair/refurbishment/replacementmaterial comprises providing a repair/refurbishment/replacement materialhaving said sulfur content in the range of from 0.5 ppm to 1.0 ppm. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein said step of providing saidrepair/refurbishment/replacement_material comprises providing arepair/refurbishment/replacement_material having said sulfur content inthe range of from 0.001 ppm to less than 10 ppm.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein said applying step comprises applying saidrepair/refurbishment/replacement material using a technique selectedfrom the group consisting of a welding technique, a brazing technique, aplasma powder deposition technique, a laser cladding technique, a powderbed produced component/sub-component, and a gas metal arc depositiontechnique.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising subjecting saidturbine engine component/sub-component with said appliedrepair/refurbishment/replacement material to a heat treatment.
 10. Arepair/refurbishment/replacement material comprising a base materialselected from the group consisting of nickel and cobalt and having asulfur content, said sulfur content being less than 10 ppm.
 11. Therepair/refurbishment/replacement material according to claim 10, whereinsaid base material is present in an amount more than 50 wt %.
 12. Therepair/refurbishment/replacement material according to claim 10, whereinsaid repair/refurbishment/replacement material comprises a nickel basedalloy and said base material is nickel.
 13. Therepair/refurbishment/replacement material according to claim 10, whereinsaid repair/refurbishment/replacement material comprises a cobalt basedalloy and said base material is cobalt.
 14. Therepair/refurbishment/replacement material of claim 10, wherein saidrepair/refurbishment/replacement material has said sulfur content below7.0 ppm.
 15. The repair/refurbishment/replacement material of claim 10,wherein said repair/refurbishment/replacement material has said sulfurcontent below 1.0 ppm.
 16. The repair/refurbishment/replacement materialof claim 10, wherein said repair/refurbishment/replacement material hassaid sulfur content in the range of from 0.5 ppm to 1.0 ppm.
 17. Therepair/refurbishment/replacement material of claim 10, wherein saidrepair/refurbishment/replacement material has said sulfur content in therange of from 0.001 ppm to less than 10 ppm.